Archived press release

Groups Call on Minister to Honour Access to Justice Promise

30 November 2004

The Government is being urged to honour a pre-election promise to improve the legal system to protect the environment, on the day of a government conference on "environmental justice" [1]. Environmental groups say the risk of having to pay potentially very high legal costs in environmental cases make access to justice close to impossible for most individuals and community groups.

The Coalition on Access to Justice for the Environment (CAJE), a new coalition including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the RSPB, the Environmental Law Foundation and WWF, argue that the risk of facing unknown legal costs are a barrier to justice which deter people from making a legal challenge on environmental grounds, even though the law may be on their side [2].

For example, communities may find themselves living next door to a serial polluter, or threatened with a hazardous waste landfill site next to a school, but cannot take legal action because they could find themselves faced with legal costs of more than £100,000.

Recent research sponsored by DEFRA highlighted the problem of prohibitive expense in environmental cases [3] and a senior judge in a recent Court of Appeal case also highlighted the problem, noting that a public interest claimant "may have to pay very heavy legal costs to the successful defendant, and that this may be a potent factor in deterring litigation directed towards protecting the environment from harm." The Court called for a study into the issue [4].

Ten years ago this autumn the Labour Party published its vision for the environment [5]. The report included explicit pledges to reform the justice system for environmental cases. It recognised that "traditional cost rules create a great disincentive to legal proceedings" and pledged to create an Environmental Division of the High Court which would operate revised cost rules so that people are "not deterred by the possibility of heavy costs as they are today".

Speaking on behalf of CAJE, Friends of the Earth Legal Adviser Phil Michaels said:

"There is an urgent need to reform the justice system so that people can afford to seek justice on environmental grounds. The current system heavily penalises those who wish to use the law as a last resort to try and uphold environmental law and protect the environment. It is time the Government listened to the advice of legal experts and made good the promise it made a decade ago."

The DEFRA conference taking place tomorrow will be the first time the Government has looked at the issue since Labour came to power in 1997.

Notes

[1] DEFRA is holding a one day Minister-led conference today (30 November 2004) on `Environmental Justice'. The Conference will be opened by Eliot Morley, Minister for the Environment, and will include a key note speech from Harriet Harman, Solicitor General.

[2] Environmental Law Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, RSPB and WWF have formed the Coalition on Access to Justice for the Environment (CAJE) which is working to ensure that access to justice in environmental matters is fair, equitable and not prohibitively expensive. CAJE has published a short report setting out a proposal for protecting public interest claimants from the risk of financial ruin
www.elflaw.org/files/CAJE%20Briefing.pdf (PDF format)

[3] www.defra.gov.uk/environment/justice/index.htm

[4] Lord Justice Brooke in R v. LB Hammersmith and Fulham ex. P. Burkett [2004] EWCA Civ 1342

[5] "In Trust for Tomorrow" - The Report of the Labour Party Policy Commission on the Environment was endorsed by the Labour Party Conference in Autumn 1994. The reports authors included Chris Smith MP and Stephen Tindale (now Director of Greenpeace).

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust